A Plan for You

So Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. 1 Samuel 3:19

Before Samuel was born, his mother Hannah prayed for a miracle from God to open her closed womb. She promised the Lord that she would dedicate her baby to Him, and she kept her promise. After Hannah weaned Samuel, she took him to live with Eli the priest, in the house of God. As a child, Samuel began to hear the Lord's voice. He spoke God's words as instructed. As Samuel grew up, he did as the Lord commanded him and was well-known among the people as the Lord's prophet. It is easy to see that God had a clear plan for the life of Samuel, even before he was conceived. And Samuel is seen by some even today as one similar to Moses in his heart and character before God and the people of God. What a blessed life in the Lord!

I used to read this story and be a little envious of Samuel's relationship with God. Samuel was divinely chosen for a specific purpose at a specific time. And he heard the Lord's voice so clearly that he thought it was Eli calling for him (1 Samuel 3:3-10). Then the Lord reminded me that I have even more than Samuel had – I have the Holy Spirit living in me. I have the Word of God written in its entirety. I have the risen Lord Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. What else could I possibly need or want? The issue is not about what I have or do not have in the Lord; the issue is whether or not I live my life like I believe it.

God's Word tells us that He has a plan for our lives. God's Word tells us that He knew us before we were formed in our mothers' wombs. God's Word tells us everything we need to know about who our Lord is, just so we can trust and believe in Him. Before you were born, God saw the entirety of your life, from beginning to end. He is never surprised or caught off guard by your behavior or sins. His desire for each of us is that we grow in Him, that we love Him with all that we are, and that we give Him all that we have. Then, His words will be spoken through us and our lives will unfold His divine purpose, all for His glory. Ask the Lord today to help you find strength and confidence in knowing He has a plan and purpose to bless your life from beginning to end.

~Daily Disciples Devotional~

Christ As He Really Is

"One like unto the Son of Man ... out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword" (Revelation 1:13, 16)

The Christian message has ceased to be a pronouncement and has become instead a proposition. Scarcely anyone catches the imperious note in the words spoken by Jesus Christ.

The invitational element of the Christian message has been pressed far out of proportion in the total scriptural scene. Christ with His lantern, His apologetic stance and His weak pleading face has taken the place of the true Son of Man whom John saw - His eyes as a flame of fire, His feet like burnished brass and His voice as the sound of many waters.

Only the Holy Spirit can reveal our Lord as He really is, and He does not pain in oils. He manifests Christ to the human spirit, not to our physical eyes.

These are strenuous times, and men and women are being recruited to devote themselves to one or another master. But anything short of complete devotion to Christ is inadequate and must end in futility and loss.

Lord, help me to see You as You truly are - mighty, righteous, just, and holy. Amen

~A. W. Tozer~

God's Faithful Voice

"And take heed to yourselves ... and cares of this life" (Luke 21:34)

In a day when judgments are soon to come upon the earth, we are often warned by doctors that we eat too much - and that we worry too much. More of us suffer from mental illness than suffer from major physical illnesses.

In our self-centered lives, even those who are professing believers are prone to think they will hear the trumpets of woe in time to do something about all this. But at that time, it will be too late!

The voice of God is a quiet voice. The voice of God's love and grace is constant - never strident, never compulsive. God has sent His messengers to every generation. He has spoken urgently and faithfully through His prophets, through the concerns of preachers and evangelists, even through the sweet voices of the gospel singers. Further, God has spoken through witnessing men and women: plain, sincere, loving men and women transformed by a spiritual birth which is from above.

This is the voice of God we hear in this day of grace - the voice of the Saviour calling wandering sinners home.

Loving Father, I am humbled that You have called me, a hopeless sinner, to Yourself. Enable me to reach out today to someone who has been putting You off. Amen

~A. W. Tozer~

Hope

Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart, All you who hope in the Lord.   Psalm 21:34

The word "hope" is mentioned repeatedly throughout the Psalms to bring encouragement in the Lord. Most of us speak of "hope" interchangeably with other words such as dreams, wishes, desires and goals. We pray and hope, dream and hope, and you can probably think of other words that you use in connection with "hope." The Bible most commonly uses the word "trust" in association with its definition. To hope in the Lord means that we are putting our trust in Him. In searching how often "hope" is used, I found that it comes up most frequently in the book of Job and the Psalms. One book describes pain and suffering; the other, praise and worship. But hope is the common thread in both.

When we are down, we are desperate for something or someone to place our hopes in or upon. We need to know that tomorrow will be better. We need to believe that lives are changing toward the good. If we are sick, we hope to be healed. If we are in financial crises, we hope for restoration and prosperity. If we are in any kind of trouble, we hope that everything works out positively. We hope for a tomorrow that is better than today. Without hope, where would we be? How could we keep going? Hebrews 11:1 says that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." We must trust in the only One who brings real hope – Jesus Christ. Though we cannot physically see Him, we must place our faith in His love for us. Jesus is our only hope, for only He has the power to change our tomorrows.

Do you need hope for today? Pick up God's Word and ask Him to show you His hope for your situation. Regardless of where you are, He already knows everything about it. No trouble or trial is too great for our Lord. We have but one requirement: to place all of our hope in Him. There is no hope in the world, only fleeting moments. But God gives us hope in the eternal life that awaits us. The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:17 that our light affliction is but for a moment compared to the eternal glory that awaits those of us in Christ Jesus. Put your hope and trust today in Jesus. Ask Him to fill you with His Holy Spirit to comfort you with His hope of glory.

~Daily Disciples Devotional~

Salvation's Price

"But without faith it is impossible to please Him" (Hebrews 11:6)

Too many Christian leaders, acting like enthusiastic promoters, are teaching that the essence of faith is this: "Come to Jesus - it will cost you nothing!"

The price has all been paid - "it will cost you nothing!"

Brethren, that is a dangerous half-truth. There is always a price connected with salvation and with discipleship.

God's grace is free, no doubt about that. No one in the wide world can make any human payment toward the plan of salvation of the forgiveness of sins.

I take issue on Bible grounds with the statement that "everyone in the world has faith - all you have to do is turn your faith loose."

That is truly a misconception of what the Bible teaches about men and God and faith. Actually, faith is a rare and wonderful plant that lives and grows only in the penitent soul!

The teaching that everyone has faith is simply a form of humanism in the guise of Christianity. I warn you that any faith that belongs to everybody is not the faith that saves! It is not that faith which is a gift of God to the broken and contrite heart!

Lord, I praise You for extending Your grace so freely to me. I repent of any sins I have committed, both knowingly and unknowingly. Help my faith in You to grow today. Amen

~A. W. Tozer~

A New And Living Way

The vail shall divide unto you. - Exodus 26:33

That vail was rent when Jesus died, the Holy Ghost signifying that from that moment access was free into the Holiest. All believers are now welcome to draw near and live in the perpetual presence of God, their Father, even as Jesus did in His earthly life, and as He does in the Heaven of Heavens. This is the clear teaching of Heb 10:19-22 : - " Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the vail, that is to say, His flesh; and having a High Priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water."

 

But there is a deeper significance still. The new and living way was opened through the rending of the flesh of Jesus Christ. As His flesh was rent on the Cross, the Temple vail was rent from the top to the bottom. And it is only when we have chosen the cross, with its shame and death, as the lot of our self-life, that we can enter into that immediate fellowship with God, which is described as "within the vail."

 

How many there are who never get beyond that dividing vail! They know the brazen altar of Atonement, the laver of daily washing, the golden altar of intercession; but they are never admitted to that blessed intimacy of communion which sees the Shekinah glory between the cherubim and blood-sprinkled mercy-seat.

 

O Spirit of God, apply the blood to sprinkle our consciences, and the water to cleanse the habits of our daily life; and lead us where our Forerunner and Priest awaits us. 

~F. B. Meyer~

They Beheld God

They beheld God, and did eat and drink. - Exodus 24:11

It is a beautiful combination, which we should do well to emulate.

 

Some eat and drink, and do not behold God. - They are taken up with the delights of sense. Their one cry, as the children of this world, is, What shall we eat, what shall we drink, and wherewithal shall we be clothed? But the God in whose hand their breath is and whose are all their ways, they do not glorify. Let us beware; it was of Christian professors that the Apostles said, Their god is their belly.

 

Some behold God, and do not eat and drink. - They look on God with such awful fear that they isolate Him from the common duties of life. They draw a strict line between the sacred and secular, between Sunday and weekday, between God's and their own. This divorce between religion and daily life is fatal to true religion, which was meant to be the bond between the commonest details of life and the service of God.

 

Some behold God, and eat and drink. - They turn from the commonest avocations to look up into His face. They glorify God in their body as well as in their spirit. They obey the apostle's injunction, "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." Oh for the grace to be able to combine the vision of God with every common incident - to live always beneath His eye in the unrestrained gladness of little children in their Father's presence!

 

Never a trial that He is not there,

Never a burden that He doth not bear;

Never a sorrow that He doth not share -

Moment by moment I'm under His care.

~F. B. Meyer~